December 24, 2013…..Return to Teufelsberg: The Devil’s Rear End, Part XX…..by Ray Adams

Return to Teufelsberg: The Devil’s Rear End, Part XX

by Ray Adams

blindberlin@gmail.com

     Klaus escorted them to one of the C-ration rooms.  He invited them to make a lunch selection.  There were both biscuit and meat units, ranging in combinations from meat and beans or meat and vegetable stew to ham and lima beans or chicken and vegetables.

“So many choices, so little antacid,” D.T. said.

“I sure hope I don’t have to use one of those stupid can openers that always came with

C-rations,” Tim said.  “I almost cut my thumb off with one of those back in basic.”

Klaus smiled and said, “The U.S. Army may be hosting this lunch by providing C-rations, but your maitre d’ is a German, and I have technologically advanced can openers, provided by the latest in German engineering.”  He showed them a different type of can opener and said, “My can openers were designed to open cans of caviar in Mercedes Benzes, so no one here should be in any danger of losing his thumb.”

D.T. got a good laugh out of Klaus’ comment.  He was amazed at how Fate had led three American bullshitters to meet such an excellent example of a German bullshitter.  He recognized Klaus’ can openers as the same variety sold in dollar stores in the States.

Let the bullshit begin, D.T. thought to himself.  And it did.  The four of them filled the air with thoughts and opinions on the Cold War, listening to Russians, hitchhiking across the USA, the difference between German and American women, and decadent officers who led the good life while enlisted men worked hard many feet above them.

All in all, it was an excellent afternoon to be stuck with good company in the devil’s rear end.

Dear Readers, These eight stories are now available on both Kindle and Nook for your reading pleasure.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

Book art by: Noel Gonzalez http://noelgonzalez.com/contact.htm

December 3, 2013…..Return to Teufelsberg: The Devil’s Rear End, Part XVII…..by Ray Adams

Return to Teufelsberg:  The Devil’s Rear End, Part XVII

by Ray Adams

blindberlin@gmail.com

     They reached the bottom, finding a hallway that led into the main building.  D.T. was amazed at how massive and solid everything was.  It seemed an appropriate place to teach the leaders of an army that was destined to conquer the world.  Or so they thought.  The floor was covered by years of dust, but someone, most likely Klaus, had made a footprint trail through it.

Klaus smiled.  “Open your nostrils and get a good whiff of irony.”

The three Americans sneezed, perhaps first getting a good whiff of years of dust.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever smelled irony before,” Neeto said after he stopped sneezing.  “although I certainly have tried to teach my students about it.  Only a few of them ever got it.”  He shook his head.

D.T. grinned.  Even in the dim light from the flashlights, Neeto had the appearance of a professor and poet.  His gray hair and the way he held himself made him look distinguished.  His voice was deep and well-modulated, evidence of years of experience in speaking to an audience.  D.T., on the other hand, had always been told to slow down, that his speech was too hurried and slurred.

“I have trouble dealing with the irony of how these days it’s the Americans who are starting all the wars,” D.T. said.  “Who’s going to help us find peace?”

“Maybe the Germans will,” Klaus said.  “And that would be ironic, wouldn’t it?  I think the new German destiny is to build a bright, green world.  We are now the leaders in recycling and reforestation.  A nice change, I think.”

Dear Readers, These eight stories are now available on both Kindle and Nook for your reading pleasure.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

Book art by: Noel Gonzalez http://noelgonzalez.com/contact.htm

September 10, 2013……Return to Teufelsberg: The Devil’s Rear End, Part V……….By Ray Adams

Return to Teufelsberg:  The Devil’s Rear End, Part V

By Ray Adams

blindberlin@gmail.com

     D.T. continued his story.

“At that time, there was a blind man who frequently came into Linda’s.”  D.T was referring to Linda’s Lounge, the sleazy GI bar a block from Andrews where he spent most of his off duty time with his buddies Chingón, Jerry, Tim, Neeto, and Hos, along with many of the local fräuleins. 

“Now this blind man only spoke German, wore dark glasses, acted like he couldn’t see, which I guess is what a blind man does, and even had a German Shepherd guide dog.  He never talked to any of the GI’s, only the bartender, and that in German.  Mostly he kept to himself while he sipped at a beer.  I never heard him use English.”

“Now when I was in the Security Office, I saw that SOB.  Only he wasn’t wearing any dark glasses and I caught him making a report – in English, mind you – to a Security Officer.  Man, when he saw me looking at him, he practically jumped out of his skin.  His eyes got every bit as big as Big Monika’s hips.”

“They were spying on us,” Neeto said.  He looked disgusted and spat onto the littered grass in the compound.

“I never saw that SOB in Linda’s again, but I bet you they got someone else to take his place, maybe pretending to be a German worker or something like that.”

The three of them used their extensive knowledge of scatological language to fill the air with curses.

“Are you Americans always so noisy?”  The voice seemed to come out of nowhere and caused the three of them to jump up and look around.

Dear Readers, These eight stories are now available on both Kindle and Nook for your reading pleasure.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

Book art by: Noel Gonzalez http://noelgonzalez.com/contact.html

August 13, 2013…………Return to Teufelsberg: The Devil’s Rear End, Part I………….By Ray Adams

           

Return to Teufelsberg:  The Devil’s Rear End, Part I

By Ray Adams

     In October 2006, D.T. and two of his old Army buddies, Neeto and Tim, returned to Berlin to see how the places they knew 40 years earlier had changed.  First on their list was Andrews Barracks, the place where they had lived, and second were the GI bars that surrounded Andrews.  On the second day of their visit, they set out to explore Teufelsberg, German for Devil’s Mountain, the place where they had actually worked.

D.T. had a map of Berlin that had been printed in the mid-eighties.  He found a spot on it called Teufelsberg next to a symbol of a hill.  “We should be able to find it easily enough with this map,” he told his two friends.  “Neeto can drive and I’ll do the navigating.”

“That sounds great,” Tim said.  “I’ll lounge in the back and keep you guys honest by pointing out all your mistakes.”

“I’m sure you’ll do a good job,” Neeto said.

D.T. mused on how he was really here to see the past through the present, and thereby understand the present through the past.  He wondered if the ruins of Site 3, or the Hill, as Teufelsberg was also known, would even still be there.  The Germans might have torn all the buildings down and put up a Cold War Museum in their place.  Maybe he would rub elbows with kids who would laugh and point at pictures of Americans wearing headsets and tuning in sophisticated receiving equipment to listen to Russians and East Germans.

Neeto said nothing as he drove and D.T. was also silent.  Only Tim chattered away in the back seat, filling the air with the sound of his laughing voice.

Dear Readers, These eight stories are now available on both Kindle and Nook for your reading pleasure.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

Book art by: Noel Gonzalez http://noelgonzalez.com/contact.html

January 8, 2013.Return to Andrews…Part I…….By:…Ray Adams

Dear Readers, Happy New Year!  I decided this was the right time to share my memories with you about my return visit to Andrews Barracks.  It took me a total of eight blogs to write down the entire experience.  So, here’s hoping you enjoy the next two months of reading rayscoldwarberlinblog.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

Building 914

Return to Andrews:  Part I

January 8, 2013

by

Ray Adams

     In November, 2007, I attempted to get a tour of what used to be Andrews Barracks when I was visiting Berlin.  I thought I had arranged for one through the Internet, but something must have gotten lost in the translation.  The former home of ASA Field Station Berlin was now the German National Archives.  I arrived there at 2:45 PM and tried to explain to the German guard that I had an appointment for a tour.  My German is poor and he didn’t seem to understand me very well, but he still gave me a pass, a temporary badge, and a chit with a number on it.

“Go to building 901,” he told me in German.  Or at least that’s what I thought he said.  One thing about my German, though, I had learned numbers well enough when I was stationed in West Berlin, so I was pretty certain about the 901 part.

As I walked through the compound, I passed the building where I used to live.  It now had “914” painted on it.  I couldn’t remember if the buildings had such numbers on them when we were billeted here.  But I did notice that the numbers were getting smaller, so I assumed I was headed in the right direction.

The first lady I talked to in 901 spoke no English, but like a good bureaucrat, she passed me on.  Herr Reinheim did speak excellent English, but he was puzzled regarding the purpose of my visit.

“What do you mean, you just want to look around?  We have thousands and thousands of books here.  We need something definite.”

I could sense his frustration and I wondered if I had indeed wasted my time in coming here.

 

Dear Readers, These six stories are now available on both Kindle and Nook for your reading pleasure.  Best wishes, Ray Adams

 

April 17, 2012: The Devil’s Mountain……………………. Ray Adams

April 17, 2012:  The Devil’s Mountain

     Many Americans are unaware of how much information is gathered each year by the National Security Agency, or the NSA, headquartered in Ft. Meade, Maryland.  I happened to learn only because I worked for the NSA during Cold War days at the Army Security Agency Field Station Berlin.

As you might well infer, at that time the ASA was actually a branch of both the Army and the NSA.  The Field Station’s biggest operation took place at Site 3, located in the British Sector.  Berlin is very flat, but after WWII, several “rubble mountains” were formed when the bombing and shelling debris was gathered by work gangs of Truemmerfrauen, or rubble ladies, and carted off to isolated spots in the city.  The Germans called the largest of these rubble piles Teufelsberg, or Devil’s Mountain.  It was the highest point in Berlin.

The U.S. Army found that radio reception on Teufelsberg was exceptional and, along with their British allies, established a listening post there.  It did not take long before Teufelsberg, or Site 3, or The Hill, as the GI’s who worked there called it, became the busiest listening post in the entire world, furnishing NSA with tons and tons of six-ply paper reporting on Russian and East German communications.  This lasted from the late fifties until a couple of years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the early 1990’s.